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(Arlington, Va.) The Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) has awarded its top research award, The Skystone Partners Prize for Research on Fundraising and Philanthropy, to Robert M. Penna, Ph.D., of Albany, N.Y., for his pioneering book, The Nonprofit Outcomes Toolbox: A Complete Guide to Program Effectiveness, Performance Measurement, and Results, published by John Wiley & Sons.

KDLT.com South Dakota News - USD Students Shed Layers For Charity: You come to the event fully clothed in clothes that you are willing to donate. And at certain checkpoints throughout the route you discard the clothing and all the clothes you take off is donated to domestic violence shelters,” said Seth Lopour, the president of the PIKE Fraternity.

massnonprofit.org ::: April 16, 2012 — The Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art in North Adams, known as MASS MoCA, has teamed with Wilco, the celebrated alternative rock band, for a concert fundraiser, selling tickets through an auction instead of the traditional first-come, first-served approach.

The eBook, which is titled, "Leveraging Your Story: Applying Business Acumen to Hospital Charitable Service," is a free resource available to all hospitals in an effort to help them expand the impact and public support of their community service programs. It emerged from research conducted through the Hospital Charitable Service Awards, a national program that recognizes and rewards charitable hospital programs that demonstrate sustainable community impact.

“Night of the Arts” was the brain-child of eight classmates working together on a group project for their event management class. The groups, led by an adviser, were free to pick their own charities, venues and events.

Philanthropy in Motion - The Daily Iowan: hat certainly was true in my case. I came to campus expecting to learn everything I needed to know merely by being in the classroom and reading my textbooks. I didn't realize then that Iowa also would give me philanthropic opportunities that would help change my life — and the lives of others.

College is, without a doubt, pegged as a "selfish" time — a time to focus on you. That's exactly what I had intended to do when I came to college, until I got involved in UI Dance Marathon.

Budget cuts affect local nonprofits | University Star: Various nonprofits attempt to help those in need by providing a wide range of services in Hays County. However, in recent times, many of these nonprofits have been struggling due to spending cuts from the state government.

“What we have seen a down-swing in is the number of dollars given by government entities to our nonprofits,” said Michelle Harper, executive director of United Way of Hays County. “Therefore, the nonprofits we fund are asking for more dollars to make up for that.”

Monday, April 16, 2012

Northeast Florida nonprofits rethinking fundraising efforts | jacksonville.com: To compete, other nonprofits and cash-strapped government programs must follow the mayor's example, said Rena Coughlin, executive director of the Nonprofit Center of Northeast Florida, which offers training, resources and advocacy for local charities. They must expand their outreach and put a spotlight on what they do and how well they do it. And they must develop new approaches, such as measuring results by tracking the success of youth served in a particular program.

Ousted Museum Group Angry Over Breakup - WSJ.com: Dr. Lehman said he told the committee's leaders that the museum needed all its fundraising conducted by professionals. And the museum had to consolidate its record-keeping and accounting to ensure compliance with federal tax laws, he said.

Shirley Gabriner, a committee member for more than 40 years, said: "I certainly accept and understand that, and everyone in my group accepts that totally."

But she and others said they felt hurt and angry about how Dr. Lehman broke the news to them. They were asked to vacate their office by the end of January, a deadline later pushed to February.

Boston Marathon a Test of Runners’ Fundraising Endurance - NPQ – Nonprofit Quarterly - Promoting an active an engaged democracy.: However, some runners participating in the marathon are finding the new fundraising minimum—upped to $4,000 this year despite a sputtering economy—more of an endurance test than they had expected. Runner Allison Buzzell, for example, reports that she is having a hard time raising the $4,000, and the stress that this causes is exacerbated by the fact that “most charities take runners’ credit card numbers, meaning that if a runner does not raise the required amount, blisters may not be the race’s only lasting pain,” as the Worcester Telegram & Gazette recently put it. “The charities can—and often do—charge the runners’ cards.”

The Power of Strategic Thinking | Association of Governing Boards: Indeed, one could argue that the institutional conservatism of colleges and universities and the different ways in which market incentives work in higher education motivate institutions to devote most of their resources and energy to the first box—doing even better what we already do. Certainly that is the goal of our strategic plan at Smith College, like the plans of many colleges and universities. Furthermore, the alumni support so vital to reputation and fundraising often depends on a certain cultivated nostalgia, the opposite of “selective forgetting.” Projects that represent a radical change in an institution’s business model, even when undertaken as pilot endeavors, are relatively rare at colleges and universities.

Tony Blair: In Favour of Philanthropy: Part of the difference lay in appreciating the extraordinary and dynamic role of the Philanthropic sector. Today's 11th Global Philanthropy Forum registers an opportunity to see how far this sector has developed and how much more it could develop further.

Some philanthropic institutions are global names today such as the Gates Foundation and Clinton Global Initiative. This in itself is new, and proof of their impact. Others are less well known but no less effective. Their reach is now felt in obvious spheres like health, education and poverty relief. But increasingly, this 'third sector' is supporting initiatives in business development, women's empowerment, human rights and the improvement of government itself. There are traditional parts of the sector such as the Faith community, which, for example, provides almost half of all health care in Africa. But there are also sprouting up scores of small start-up philanthropic institutions that will operate at a niche level, but make an extraordinary difference with very ordinary amounts of resource.

There was a suggestion in a recent op-ed column that the Gaillard Center project be abandoned for a new, not precisely defined site, which the city does not own, on the waterfront next to the cruise terminal.

There are many things wrong with this idea. One is that an approach like this would probably conservatively cost an additional $100 million which is not attainable from the city or private sources. It is also fiscally irresponsible to suggest that the city abandon this project after $13 million has been spent.

Learning to Steer your Career: I am increasingly unhappy with my career choice and I don't know what to do. Some days at work are good, and some days are just plain bad. What can I do?

We all face times in our careers when we question what we are doing the role of our careers in the scope of our lives in general. Accept this questioning as a natural and healthy process, and actively investigate and evaluate your situation and any planned changes of course. The easiest short-term thing to do is nothing, but that in itself is a decision and has its own long-term consequences.

“Activity and participation—those are the keys,” Booz Allen Hamilton Founding Partner Jim Allen counseled years ago. “There are many things in which to participate: community affairs, schools, clubs, welfare organizations, professional and industrial groups. Choose wisely, but participate.”

Charity Village� Research: Can Corporate Good be Better?: For the uninitiated, employer supported volunteer programs look very different depending on how you look at them. They can be as simple as employers allowing their staff to use their work email or the phone (during break times) to conduct volunteer activities. It could also be as involved as organizing a group (sometimes a large group) of employees to go out into the community to volunteer. I'm going to talk about the latter end of the spectrum.

What often happens in these programs is that someone in the corporation organizes a group of staff to do manual labour. At least, that's the common perception. The business will sometimes buy the supplies — paint, lumber, nails, etc. — and get to work fixing a fence or building a playground. I'm over-generalizing to make three points.

Are We Risk Averse or Risk Ignorant?: irst, I don’t think most people or their organizations really consider risk in their decision making. So they aren’t risk averse or risk prone. The decision makers may fear change or even have a knee-jerk reaction that something is “too risky” but I’m not sure risk analysis affects their decisions. A risk averse organization (meaning they want to avoid or minimize all risks) would have an extensive risk management program (few do), business continuity and disaster recovery plans, succession plans and include risk analysis as a part of their decision-making process. Similarly if people were risk averse they would all eat right, not smoke, wear seatbelts, not drink and drive, not drive while distracted and always have an umbrella.